Day: November 20, 2013

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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We have a coxswain who always covers his microphone with his hand which he thinks gives him this like gruff thing going on, but the problem is we can’t always understand him and quite frankly, it’s annoying. I don’t get why he needs it when we’re not going into the wind but what should we do? Would it be rude to ask if he could please stop or what?

I know several coxswains that do/did this and they were all guys so it’s funny that you say your coxswain does the same thing. If you can’t understand him (and even if you think it’s annoying) you should just ask him to stop. I can understand trying to hold the mic a little closer to your mouth if the wind is particularly strong but it’s really rare that this is actually necessary. If what he’s saying is muffled then that negates whatever effect he’s going for anyways. As long as you aren’t rude when you say something, asking him to stop messing with the mic wouldn’t be rude at all.

Inside every athlete is that one demon, hidden down in the back of your mind that screams at you not to finish the piece. It tells you you’re not good enough, this hurts, let's go home and watch more TV. In a crew it is easier to squash that demon, to beat it down and use those around you to push yourself further. Whilst not easy to do, having team mates makes fighting your demon manageable. It is the single sculler who has the real fight, or the athlete who has decided that the only way they will improve is by training themselves outside of the program. Those who train alone truly come to know their demons; “Who's going to notice if you don't finish this piece”, “what difference is that extra stroke/rep/minute going to really make.” Every stroke the demon screams at you and every stroke is a fight to push him further down. Champions are those who learn to break their demons because come race day when that third 500 starts to scream for everyone else, the thoughts are getting louder and louder, but a champion already knows how to beat that voice, they have spent their summers beating that little voice into submission in the back of their minds and when everyone else starts to hurt they are able to sit up tall and give that little bit extra. Other rowers are easy to conquer, it's our own heads we have to work at.